~ Change is Good

Tag Archives: monthly updates

I wasn’t able to post my Month Four update on the correct date–the 21st of the month–because I was on a cruise ship in Bermuda and, well, the internet was really expensive on board the ship. Sure, there was an internet cafe in the port–a few hundred feet from the ship–but I didn’t go there once. After all, why spend time inside when the outside looks like this?

While I have been known to over-saturate my photos, this one has not been edited in any way. The colors are all real!

I did spend some time thinking about this post on that day–my four month career break anniversary. I thought about it as I sat overlooking the port, contemplating my utter lack of plans for the day. I thought about it while I wandered into port to inquire about the possibility of a tour of some kind. And I really thought about it whilst snorkeling in the beautiful blue water shown behind me in the photo at the top of this post. I thought ‘gee–maybe I am having a mid-life crisis!’ But that thought passed quickly, and I continued to float above the coral and bond with the parrot fish.

If that’s a crisis, then I’m ok with having one.

This month passed more quickly than any of the previous months. I’m not sure why this is, but I certainly hope that time starts to slow down sometime very soon! During this very quick month, I…

-S-L-O-W-L-Y started an exercise routine. While I did not keep it up during my trip, I did resume immediately upon returning.

-Finally began drafting my book. It is going well but, again, slowly.

-Determined that I need to leave the house to get actual writing done.

-Spent a lot of time at Barnes and Noble (see above!)

-Learned that I can live without the internet for a surprisingly long amount of time.

-Freaked out about the fact that my career break ‘wasn’t living up to it’s potential’.

-Took a last minute trip to Bermuda.

-Learned that I can do a great many things all by myself without even thinking about it.

-Continued to research freelance writing opportunities.

-Applied for two ‘real’ jobs–heard nothing back.

I go back and forth between feeling really good about this year and being very afraid. On the one hand, the fact that I was actually able to seize a cheap last-minute travel opportunity makes me very happy. That was half of the point of this year, and having done it once I’m confident it will happen again. I can very proudly and confidently respond to the oft-asked question where are you going next? with I don’t know …because I know that I will be going somewhere–and I can’t wait to find out where that will be!

However, I don’t live in a dream world–or in a world of unlimited funds. I need to make money somehow. In the short term, I need money to fund these trips I so want to take. In the long term, I need to find something to do ‘for a living’ that pays actual money–you know, so we don’t lose our home. And while I have lots of ideas of how to do that, nothing I’ve attempted so far seems to have panned out. Even when I do finish this book there will be a long time between typing the last word and getting the first paycheck (if there even is a paycheck–but I’ll worry about that when the time comes!)

And so, this career break continues to be an up-and-down ride. I’m happy and content one minute, freaking out and anxiety-ridden the next. But even in the worst of times I’m much calmer than I was this time last year–and in the best of times, I’m snorkeling in Bermuda.

Despite how happy I look in today’s photo, month three has been the most challenging month so far. So many things happened–I returned from our road trip, prepared for my research trip, and left my home and husband behind for a few weeks to start researching for my book. And, last but not nearly least, all of my friends–and my husband–went back to work.

It’s been a tough month.

But fortunately, even when I’m stressed or sad I’m still learning. Which brings me to my Lessons List ‘o the Month. This month I learned:

I really, really hate leaving my husband.

I’m not as brave as I’d like to think.

Planning a solo trip is one thing; doing it is quite another.

I have a fantastic sense of direction.

I love having a rental car when on vacation.

I can get work done even whilst entertaining others.

There are people on the earth other than my husband that I enjoy traveling with (and that I think can enjoy traveling with me, too!)

Sometimes the things you plan out don’t work out. And it’s ok to change them.

I work better when under a shorter deadline.

Because of the above, all trips from here on out will be no more than ten days in length (with the exception of summer road trips with the husband–those don’t count!)

It’s really freaking hot in central Florida in September.

Even when Disney parks are having ‘low crowd level days’, there are still crowds. And being hot makes it worse.

I will always go home early if given the chance (This is historically true. Please reference Europe trip and Breadloaf!)

All I really want is to be able to earn money doing something I love whilst still being able to travel in the summer with my husband. I don’t need to be the Rick Steves of educational domestic travel.

I have absolutely no idea what that ‘something to earn money’ is going to be. I only know what it’s not going to be. So I guess that’s a start…?

Clearly, all of these lessons are not lessons that I enjoyed learning. But no one ever said this would be easy. Which brings me to the last thing I’ve learned: nothing is easy. It may seem that I’m living a life of leisure, hanging out in the happiest place on earth and smiling in front of the Tower of Terror. Sadly, that’s not true. Everything is hard…but the secret to happiness is finding the kind of difficult that you can deal with. I can deal with this type of difficult.

Is it stressful trying to create something out of nothing? Absolutely. Have I cultivated new stress-induced nightmares? You bet. But it’s still better than 9th period study hall.

The other great thing about this kind of difficult is that I have the ability to change my situation. For example, if it is hot and crowded in a particular park that I’m in, I can change parks (or come home and type up my notes and write a blog post, which is what I’m doing right now.) If I find that I’m running out of steam–and ideas–I can hop on a cheap flight home (which I will be doing on Saturday.) If I get home and realize three months from now that I need more research time, well, it’s another cheap flight back. And if I need money to pay for all of those cheap flights I imagine it won’t be hard to find somewhere that will hire me to do some sort of menial task.

I’ve been ‘not working’ for an entire season now–last day of work was the first day of summer, and autumn begins the day after tomorrow. Here’s to three more seasons of figuring out what I want to do when I grow up–or finding a way to avoid the whole growing up thing all together!

EDIT: I’d like to apologize for the fact that the formatting above is completely screwed up. I just spent fifteen minutes trying to fix it and I simply CAN NOT. Apparently that’s not one of the things I learned this month.

I almost didn’t post this today, as I didn’t realize it was the 21st of the month…again! Where does the time go? Well, I know where the last month went–it went on the road. We’ve been home from our epic road trip for just under 48 hours, and I’m semi-overwhelmed. But in a totally good way.

As I enter month three of my career break (pardon my language here) shit really starts to get real. Why? Because Labor Day is approaching. Yes, Labor Day, the holiday that was once my least favorite day of the year, as it always preceded my second least favorite day of the year–the first day of school. All of my friends are cringing at Back to School commercials, sharpening their pencils and breaking open the new grade books. And…I’m…not.

Woah.

Like I said–shit is really starting to get real. I’m also leaving for Orlando in 18 short days to do the research that will hopefully become my book. Or a website. Or an iPhone app. Something that will equal ‘what I do for a living’–even if that living is rather meager. But more on that trip later. I’ve barely recovered from the last trip!

So–how was The Trip? It was fantastic. Amazing. Best trip ever. Seriously. I am so glad I didn’t freak out and cancel it all at the last minute. We can’t even pick a favorite part, it was that great. My husband continues to cite Cape Breton as his favorite part. My favorite part was definitely an eight-way tie between all of the places we visited. Ogunquit was a great start to the trip, our trip to Monhegan Island from Boothbay Harbor was the first ‘wow’ experience, Bar Harbor was the perfect mix of drinking and hiking. And then we got to Canada. Cape Breton, Prince Edward Island, and, surprisingly, Fundy National Park, were all beautiful enough to deserve the hundreds of photos I took. It rained the whole time we were in Halifax–luckily, my husband found some breweries to keep us dry. The last stop of our trip–two nights in Portland on our way back through Maine–turned into three nights because we loved it there so much. Imagine–me, loving a city.

Of course, the important question is–what did I learn? In classic bulleted list format, here you go…

Career Break Month Two–On the Road: What I Learned

How to be comfortable pretty much anywhere.

That I’m in terrible shape.

That I want to get in better shape–not to look pretty, but so I can do things in life. Like bike in Acadia–without huffing and puffing and blacking out!

When given the choice, I will typically opt to eat vegetarian.

It is sometimes ok to steal condiments from restaurants like an old, hat-and-pearl-wearing lady.

I enjoy making meals out of very few ingredients in a very tiny kitchen.

I really love my husband, and he must really love me, too.

It is easier to drive long distances if you are not stressed about it.

The ability to choose to not be stressed, even when I start out that way.

That underplanning a trip is a good idea. Perhaps underplanning life isn’t as scary, either?

How to take photos of clouds, sunsets, and waterfalls.

That I need a job that allows me to take trips like that at least yearly, or multiple short trips per year.

That you don’t need to spend any money at all to have a wonderful time.

That I am very, very blessed.

I’m sure there are a great many other things that I learned, too. But fear not–I have forty-five typed pages of notes on our trip, and almost three thousand photos. More revelations to come!

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